"I don't know what God is, or what God had in mind when the universe was set in motion. In fact, I don't know if God even exists, although I confess that I sometimes find myself praying in times of great fear, or despair, or astonishment at a display of unexpected beauty. There are some ten thousand religious sects — each with its own cosmology, each with its own answer for the meaning of life and death. Most assert that the other 9,999 not only have it completely wrong but are instruments of evil, besides. None of the ten thousand has yet persuaded me to make the requisite leap of faith. In the absence of conviction, I've come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable corollary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the bargain — which doesn't strike me as something to lament. Accepting the essential inscrutability of existence, in any case, is surely preferable to its opposite: capitulating to the tyranny of intransigent belief. And if I remain in the dark about our purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why — which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive."
React to this quote
More by Jon Krakauer
See allResonant Thoughts
"We must be something in order to do something, but we must also do something in order to be something. The best rule, I think, is this: If we find it hard to do good, then let us try to be good. If, o…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail t…"
— Charlotte Brontë"I cannot ever inform against anyone without feeling something die within me. I inform without pleasure beca…"
— Whittaker Chambers"The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live — moreover, the only one."
— Emil Cioran"You want to be greedy when others are fearful. You want to be fearful when others are greedy. It's that sim…"
— Warren Buffett"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, And the life of the candle will not be shortened. Hap…"
— Gautama Buddha"We lost thousands of lives, thousands in Iraq. We have wounded soldiers, who I love, I love — they're great…"
— Donald Trump
